Dungeon Room Index: Prisons

Sorry for the long gap; sometimes life has gotta life!

Today's subject is Prisons (and company). Jail cells, oubliettes, torture chambers, execution chambers. That sort of thing. 

Here are the rooms:

"True" Dungeons

Considering that the origin of the word "dungeon" comes from a kind of castle prison, it's only appropriate that at some point I should cover this milieu.

Prisons are an interesting subject. Given how much of fantasy adventure gaming has grown beyond simple dungeon crawling--especially toward somewhat generic hero-adventure stories--I think they bring to fore a grimy underbelly of assumed medieval-esque fantasy. For that reason, some might avoid such a dungeon (ironically!). I can understand that.

Even so, a prison is a deeply evocative kind of space! Using one provokes some questions:

• What was the purpose of imprisoning people here? Merely to protect victims? To actively punish? To reform? Are/were the prisoners criminals? Political rivals? Enemy combatants? Therefore...
• Is this prison sterile and orderly? Or dark and grimy? Are cells spacious and accommodating? Or cramped and uncomfortable? Do prisoners have actual beds? Or simple wooden bunks? Or a dirty blanket on the floor? ....not even that?

The assumed defaults would of course be on the "grimy and uncomfortable" end of the spectrum, but it's your dungeon, and your setting!

Of course, most "dungeons" are probably long since abandoned by the original architects, but a prison is a great base for an antagonistic faction to take up residence. It comes with convenient places to stow intruders and rivals!

Room Notes

Simple cells

The standard feature of prisons is prison cells!

More questions: is the prison new, or old? Is it populated? Or long since abandoned? These cells could be dusty and rusty, with the bones of abandoned inmates, or they could still house their occupants to the present day. Are the individuals in these cells belligerent? Beaten-down? Not all there? Is there a single individual per cell, or are they crammed in there?
I'm drawing to a pretty standard cell-style in these rooms, but they could just as easily be open cells with a wall of bars, or cramped rooms with a metal door and a tiny grate. (At the grid-scale I'm drawing on, these sorts of distinctions are pretty tough to put to paper.)

In this layout I like that you can see through a cell to other cells beyond. It adds to the crowded feel.
In some cases, I think I draw five-foot walkways for ease of visual representation (in which case I would make a note of any differences in reality), but in a prison I think it would be important to give guards enough room to walk without inmates being able to reach out and grab them!

Prison halls like these represent a somewhat uncommon room type: one with a lot of sub-rooms. When I add such a room to my dungeon, I don't key every sub-room. Instead, I either call out a couple of specific spaces that have notable contents, or define a general description that applies to all of the sub-rooms, or even compose a quick, simple generator for spitting out junk and trinkets that might be found if these sub-rooms are searched.
For a space like this, I might even roll a number of d6's corresponding to the number of cells the players search, and only generate things for each rolled "6".

In contrast to individual cells, perhaps the prison favored large, communal cells. This prison is apparently relatively "nice", giving hanging "bunks" for the prisoners to sleep on.

A tall open chamber with cells lining multiple floors. On the highest floor, on top of the central column is a guard station where the warden can keep an eye on things.

Cages

Distinct from "cells", cages may be open on several sides, or even completely free standing (or hanging!)

Four large cells, with several prisoners each, surround a single desk where a lazy and callous guard lounges.

For some reason a large cage in the middle of a room gives me strong "zoo" vibes--suggesting these prisoners are hardly people; just animals to be observed and left to sort out their own disputes.

Prisoners hang over deep, dark pits in individual cages, hardly big enough to sit down in. In the cruelest prisons, they're left to be picked off by vermin.
Perhaps the cages hang up above the pit, or perhaps they hang down in the pit, below ground level as a reminder of a prisoner's low station, alone in the dark...

A large cell, the focal point of this room, hangs from each corner over a deep pit. This prisoner must have been particularly important...

Some sort of magic circle at the center of this room prevents it's prisoner from crossing the boundary. Perhaps it produces an invisible barrier, or perhaps a marked prisoner cannot cross the boundary without experiencing intense pain. Either this prison is particularly magical, or the occupant of this "cage" cannot be contained in any other way. Perhaps they are still here, an immortal in the ruin of a long abandoned prison.

Pits

While "cells" are probably the most obvious prison style to a modern mind, pits may arguably be more fundamental. It's simple: dig a hole and throw them in it.

A large, communal pit, with fifteen foot high walls. Guards pace the surrounding walkways, armed with crossbows to break up disputes or quell escape attempts.

Like the last pit, except the walls of the pit are lined with cells. During the day prisoners are allowed out to mingle, but at night they are confined to their cells.

Height is just such an effective means of trapping someone. Classic oubliettes are essentially a deep pit for a solitary individual. This style is a deep vertical shaft, with an even deeper pit in the middle, just to keep the prisoner uncomfortable.

Several individual open pits line this room. Either the pits are so cramped that there isn't enough room to maneuver, or the walls are greased to prevent prisoners from climbing out. In a prison like this, I think the combination of "these cells are deeply uncomfortable" and "the prisoners can hear each other's despairing moans" is intentional.

Like the previous, but each pit is at least covered by a barred trap-door.

Large, rigid nets or "lids" cover these dug out pits. Either the pits are deep enough that the prisoners can't mess with the nets, or they're weighted down by large stones around the edges.

Shackles

No bars or pits needed. The prisoners are just shackled at all times to the walls. You could do that on top of a cell, but isn't that just adding insult to injury?

Courtyards

I don't know if historical prisons had "courtyard" areas like modern prisons have to let the inmates out to stretch, but it's an interesting enough idea to play with a bit.

This large "courtyard" is surrounded by a moat, or pit, or spiked pit to keep prisoners from climbing the relatively low (10') walls. Guards with crossbows are/were stationed at each corner "tower".
The courtyard is arranged around a single pillar, and long tables are for leisure and mingling, or perhaps some kind of assembly-line-style busy work the prisoners are forced into.

Prisoner's break rocks right? Fifteen foot walls surround the courtyard area, though one section of the northern wall has long since crumbled into a steep ramp. Guards off patrol rotation could lounge at the tables, and new boulders were rolled in from the south left corner.

A simple guard-patrol-wall surrounds this courtyard where particularly unruly prisoners are locked up in the stockades on the north side of the room. They'd never say it, but the guards subtly encouraged prisoners to harass those being punished when they enter through the north gates.

The primary feature of this courtyard is the deep central pit. The guards here were extremely lax, and left prisoners to settle their own disputes. Usually by tossing the weaker or less-popular party into the pit to their death.

Miscellaneous

I'm leaning into the assumption that prisons are unpleasant, even needlessly so.

The cages in this room are flanked on either side by large fire pits. The fires were kept burning to keep the bars hot, and the prisoners sweating and dehydrated. (You could go the opposite direction with extreme cold; but I couldn't really think of an especially interesting way to show that on a map!)

The cages of this prison are arranged around a deep central shaft, and spiral upward at least a hundred feet. Each cage has only enough space for the prisoner to tuck their knees to their chest, and is practically hanging exposed over the pit. The shaft is open to the sky and the elements, and to the echoing anguish of all others imprisoned here.

These prisoners are free to move as they like. That is, they have a four foot wide stone pillar on which to move freely, with nothing to stop them from falling over into the churning water below--where bloodthirsty aquatic creatures are constantly swimming about. The pillars are far enough from each other and from the south walkway that only the most athletic (and nourished!) prisoners could hope to make the standing long jump to escape.

These prisoners are happy.... after a fashion. They are stowed upright in wall slots around this circular chamber, where they are kept in a state of constant euphoria by mind-altering drugs.

Punishment/Execution

As prisons (especially old-timey-time ones) are generally penal in nature, a prison style dungeon may include locations where executions or punishments took place. 

These cells surround a central chamber with a whipping post. Naturally the wardens wished for all to witness punishments to deter further bad behavior.

Execution by burning at the stake. Again, the wardens prefer to carry out these punishments publicly for the other prisoners.

Think prison-plus-the-Rancor-pit-from-Star-Wars. Below is the chamber where some beast lived and was released temporarily for trials by combat. On the upper level, grates in the floor allowed prisoners to see (or at least hear) what goes on below. Perhaps there's some wall of levers that causes each cell's floor to fall away into a chute to dumps prisoners into the pit. Maybe those mechanisms are weak, leading to a simple hazard for any who decide to search the cell...

Torture

On the chance that this makes you uncomfortable, just skip this section. For what it's worth, I'm not going to lean in too hard here either; I took one glance at a list of historical torture methods and decided that I didn't want to think much about it either. Even so, since it is extremely on-brand for a medieval fantasy prison to include such things, here are a few examples.

This is a simple room with some kind of rack and a desk for the torturer to carry out their questioning.

Executions (or threats of executions) are conducted in this prison by tossing the prisoner into a giant oven. Kindling is lit from either side, which acts like a fuse for fuel inside.

This torture chamber features a large water wheel. The victim was bound to the wheel, and as it rotated it dunked them under the water for some duration. Repeatedly. The torturer, once more, conducted their questioning from the adjacent desk.

(Unexpected?) things to find in a prison

I don't know... maybe some of these things feel cliche. But I hope something here will spark your imagination!

• A royal pendant. You recognize the symbol; it belongs to a former ruling family in exile.
• A journal of mad ramblings. Some of them are true and reveal deep secrets. But which ones?
• A child's doll. A keepsake? Or were these people just that evil?
• A deed to a piece of nearby land. It's either really nice, or a total swamp. But hey! Free land? In this market?!
• A written confession. A particularly embarrassing one for someone living.
• A corpse with a glass eye.
• A wicked looking conch. When pressed to the ear, it produces howls of people in agony.
• A crude map carved into a cell wall. Evidently this prisoner knew where to find something.
• A live prisoner. They seem far too cheerful, and it doesn't look like they've been here long at all.
• Animated chains. They slither around like live snakes, just waiting to wrap you up tight if you get too close.
• Mutated skeletal remains. None of the skeletons here look quite right. This one has three eye sockets, and the last one looked like it's lower half had shattered into a tangle of bony limbs. Were they conducting weird experiments on these people?
• Wailing. Like a wind, the shouts of pained souls periodically sweeps through the rooms and halls.
• Some kind of lingering prison guardian. Whether it's a specter, an automaton, or some sort of beast, it's purpose was to stalk the halls, enforcing order or instilling fear, and it remains, refusing to abandon it's post.
• A corpse who wears the same clothes as you. By all accounts, the resemblance is uncanny...